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A friend of Saari's, who did not want to be named, said: "My friend dated him but they broke up after Jokela. The reason was the messages he and Auvinen had been sending to each other."

Police fear Finland could now be facing a network of other potential school killers linked by the internet. A series of copycat threats were made at schools across the country and at least one school was evacuated.

Text message threats were being spread around Kauhajoki and police spokesman Urpo Lintula said they were causing "fear and hysteria".

Army recruits who knew Saari described him as "weird and silent" and said he was teased and bullied.

One said: "He wasn't very good at shooting and didn't really know how to handle a gun. One day we had to go into the woods and only the people at the front were supposed to shoot.

"But he shot from the back and everybody was very scared. They decided he wasn't suitable for the army."

Saari was due to be re-assessed for a place in the Army in November this year.

A fellow Battlefield 2 player said: "Auvinen and Saari were on the same team and were very familiar with each other."

Saari's massacre in Kauhajoki, a sleepy town of 14,000 people 220 miles north of Helsinki, had all the hallmarks of a copycat crime based on Auvinen's.

Both men had put videos of themselves firing their guns on YouTube and both expressed a similarly worded hatred for humanity.

On Tuesday Saari put on a ski mask and walked calmly into a classroom where he was supposed to be taking a business studies exam. He then executed his teacher and nine fellow students with deliberate shots. Eight of the dead were women.

Saari also set fire to the classroom, burning all but one of his victims' bodies beyond recognition.

The killer idolised his brother, who died of a heart attack in 2003, and police believe that may have contributed to his state of mind.